A doctor answers a Saturday-night summons from a gentle-voiced stranger named Tarn and walks into something he cannot explain. Around that eerie opening, Pain gathers stories of feasts and reckonings, a girl with beautiful hair, a widower, an unfinished game and an act of heroism, moving easily between the uncanny and the comedy of lodging-house life.
A fine sampler from an underrated Edwardian master of both humour and the supernatural. Download the free EPUB.